Big Muff

This site has changed - A LOT. All releases have been rescanned; album, single, video and collaborations covers, amounting to a total of 250 270. The old scans were from 1998, which is the stone age in internet terms. With more bandwith available and higher standards, I changed the format of the regular covers to a more 21st century look. All main illustrations on the record pages are also clickable for substantial enlargement.

In the listings, you will notice thumbnails being available for all releases. This speedens up the recognition of wanted items, and it looks better. too.

The promo section has been totally overhauled, mostly resulting in more pictures per item. Each promo page containing more photographs also features a lightbox gallery.

Enjoy the hunt while waiting for the new Live At Leeds De Luxe release :o)

It took some heavy thinking but I managed to incorporate photo gallery functionality into this website. Not all the old photographs have been transferred because of their resolution being too low for lightbox use. On the other hand there are some new ones to be found and more of those coming up.

I did not include a slideshow because this will only cost me bandwidth, which is something to be taken into account living in a shared hosting environment. Still I am convinced there is a lot of fine stuff to enjoy.

It looks like all the right buttons got pushed as things look pretty OK after a massive transfer of data.
Moving to a new service provider is a complex operation but it was necessary to keep things stable.
The photo gallery is not active at the moment as I am going to integrate this with the website itself.
I think I have an idea how to accomplish this.

Singer-songwriters Bridget St John and Mike Chapman are doing a gig in the North of England, in Southport April 22. Bridget has collaborated with John Martyn in the past and used to be friends with him.

Concert details
Bridget St John and Michael Chapman
Bothy Folk Club, Thursday 22nd April 2010. 8pm.
Tickets and more details from Pete Rimmer, telephone 07973 623210

Gradually more info is seeping through about the upcoming John Martyn tribute album.
Robert Smith (from The Cure) has done a version of Small Hours.
We also know Beth Orton recorded a version of Go Down Easy.
Beck is now reported to have made a version of Stormbringer.
And Ted Barnes and his fellow member Gavin Clarke of the UK folk band Clayhill had a go at Over The Hill.

Solid Air should be present of course but who is to record this classic JM song? Associate producer Pete Mason had Sting in mind but he proved to be too busy recording a new album for himself. Skye, the Morcheeba singer, was next in line and seems to have done a fine job.

The band Oh My God is also involved as they mention having been recording in Jim Tullios studio too.

Skye wrote a nice blog entry on her contribution here.

More news on the JM cover album. Beth Orton, who once covered Don't Want To Know on her album Superpinkymandy, played a New York concert at the City Winery on January 17th. Elizabeth Hahn reports Beth played 'Go Down Easy' on this occasion, with Sam Amidon and Thomas Bartlett of Doveman.
The interesting part is Beth added they had recorded it for an upcoming John Martyn tribute album. So there's definitely something cooking...

Robert Smith of The Cure made an interesting blog entry for the official band website on the 13th of January.

I have recorded a cover for a John Martyn tribute album, as well as a couple or three other 'collaborations'.

So what we can tell from this is that someone must be producing a John Martyn tribute album. I have no further details yet and wonder if they will make it before the 29th of January.
Would be nice if they managed to get some people listed on this page...

From NPR radio. May You Never and Solid Air, recorded 26 September 1993 for Mountain Stage.

John starts at 6:50. The piano solo at the end of Solid Air is quite nice and jazzy.

The full top 10 of Lasting Tribute celebrity tributes to get the most messages in 2009 is:
1. Jade Goody
2. Michael Jackson
3. John Martyn
4. Dave Dee, DJ and 60s celebrity
5. Actress Natasha Richardson
6. Film star Patrick Swayze
7. Singer Stephen Gately
8. Patrick McGoohan, star of cult 60s show The Prisoner
9. Actress Wendy Richard
10. Phil Easton - veteran presenter and Liverpool FC match day announcer

Says the Coventry Telegraph.

It has almost been a year now but over here we still miss Big John in a big way. At least we might expect Willing To Work to be released in 2010...

Meanwhile I wish all of you a merry Christmas and a fantastic new year.

This site is technically up to date but I have had too little time for adding all the latest releases. Eventually I will do some catching up though, hopefully in the new year.

A version of the UltanJohn track Really Gone has been included on Ultan Conlon's debut solo album Bless Your Heart, which was presented 20 November 2009 with a free gig in Kelly's, Bridge Street, Galway. Ultan John (Ultan Conlon and John Conneely) worked with John Martyn on the track that appeared as a single November 2006.

Conlon played support to Martyn for a concert at the Cork Opera House that took place 3 August 2005. John liked the duo so much they were offered a second support act the next day, at Dolans Warehouse (Limerick). Afterwards Martyn asked if he could join in a recording session for UltanJohn, at Ross Studios, Clarenbridge.

The album was written and produced by Ultan Conlon and co-produced by Eoin McCann and Raoul Terzi. It was mastered by Ray Staff, best known for his work with Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, The Clash, and Muse.
The album is released on DarkSideOut records.

Found this on Amazon with a release date of 23 November.
I'd Rather Be The Devil looks like a Christmas casher. In fact it is another Permanent rehash of older material. No new stuff over there. Approach with caution.

During the Celtic Connections festival, held January 2010 in Glasgow, there will be two tribute concerts for songwriters Nick Drake and John Martyn.
Drake's record producer Joe Boyd will lead the Drake concert with contriubutions from Vashti Bunyan, Green Gartside and Danny Thompson.
Danny Thompson will lead the tribute to John Martyn. Danny was asked on several occasions to stage a tribute concert. But he believes this event - with contributions from Martin Simpson, Luka Bloom, Eddie Reader and Darrell Scott, provides the best occasion.

They're playing the whole of Solid Air in The Button Factory.

Taken from Hotpress.com, 25 Sep 2009

Fresh from tackling Radiohead’s The Bends, The Universal Funk Orchestra perform the whole of John Martyn’s Solid Air on October 11 in The Button Factory (Dublin).

The roll call for the night includes musicians Max Greenwood, Dave McGuinness, Paul Carter, Garvan Gallagher, Kevin Kinney and Paul Byrne, and Karenrosanna Hammond who’ll be singing with both a heavy heart and a light head.

Given that Martyn wrote Solid Air’s title-track for him, the UFO-ers will also be encoring with a song by fellow folkie Nick Drake.

Tickets are € 10 before 9.30pm and € 12 after.
The Button Factory is new name of the refurbished Temple Bar Music Centre that opened October 2007.

Today, 29 January 2009, it was announced that John Martyn has passed away, at age 60. Only four weeks ago he was awarded an OBE, probably through the efforts of John Hillarby. Quite rightly so.

What can I say? I feel sad of course but also grateful for all the music he has left us. Curious about the circumstances of his death. Surprised also, even though we all knew that something like this was bound to happen some time. Sorry for all the fans out there who love him so dearly.

Condolences to Teresa and all the people that have worked so loyally to make his music stand out. To my friend John Hillarby and to all the fans around the world without whom this website would not have had any point at all.

Rest assured, I recently estimated that it will take about 10 years to finish the work I started 10 years ago. I have no intention of giving up. For me, John will never die. He lived through his music and he will live on in his music. John Martyn was and will always be a legend.